Some Requests / Suggestions for Improvement

[jm7111]

Firstly, I must honestly congratulate Egosoft's Team for the fine job you did in Version 2.50. I was one of the harsh critics back in the days of X-Rebirth in Steam forums about the bugs,
bad mechanics etc., but for X:Foundations the situation has been vastly improved. Don't know about the early days of this latest incarnation of the game, because I started playing with
ver 2.50 (for obvious reasons, based on the mentioned history).

The game is now definitely playable, the mechanics work as expected and I only encountered 2 crashes in extreme situations after ~400 hrs. of actual playing.
The four main elements of game-play, namely TRADE, FIGHT, BUILD and THINK, do in fact provide more than sufficient playing depth, making the game very enjoyable in all four aspects.

There is also a lot of valuable info available in X4:Foundations Wiki, comparable to the info provided at Roguey's excellent site, to save us a lot of hours spent in searching (sometimes with no result) through the various forums.

Nevertheless, there is a steep learning curve for newcomers (even also for players experienced in X:Rebirth), which I hope will be improved in future releases.

After ~480hrs of playing time (~400hrs actual playing) I do have the following Suggestions/Requests, hoping that, if implemented, will improve the game's playability and make our lives easier
while enjoying the game. Most of them might be minor, but I consider a few of them (i.e. "Returning screens" and "Ship's name editing" as quite important.

I. UI

1. Please allow for proper editing of ship names (editing the existing name, pasting etc) at the General Information tab. As it is, one must enter the full name anew each
time the renaming of a ship is required. The same for Probes and Satellite naming.
Furthermore, if by mistake an error in a letter is done, one must backspace (erase all) to that error and rewrite the rest.
The requested functionality is already partially present in Blacklist naming at Global Orders tab

2. Auto-saving message is not visible when at screens a) buying/configuring ships at Shipyard/Wharf or b) station Plan Build or c) handling Modifications
and thus creates confusion as to why the game does not respond. Because I set the auto-saving every 10~20 mins this is especially frustrating.
I would recommend at least to issue a distinct sound when auto-saving starts and change the cursor to hourglass.
Or even better to show a modal window on the very top with the auto-saving message. In any case no further work can be done while auto-saving (contrary to paused game)

3. When in the Ship Information screen, we have two tabs to choose from: Information & Behaviour. On the Behaviour screen we can see the list of trades the ship is eventually assigned to,
and below that some fixed sections for "Reaction to events", "Automatic Resupply" and "Blacklists". These sections are set once and then seldomly changed, but they occupy valuable
screen area in this Behaviour screen, which is one of the mostly used ones.
On the other hand, vital (and dynamically changing) information about the trade status, as for example the info shown on the 1st screen (Information) about Storage, which is an integral
part of the whole Trade handling is not shown on the Behaviour screen.

So, my suggestion is to make the above fixed sections on the Behaviour screen as drop-down menus to save space (and not to see this fixed info every time) and add the
storage info from 1st screen also on the Behaviour screen, so that we won't have to switch screens every time we add a new trade in order to see how much cargo space is still available.
This is very useful for the next trade in case the trades are not simple Buy-Sell the whole quantity.
Furthermore, one can see if the cargo is empty after a Buy-Sell cycle, because sometimes the sliders for trade quantities are not set properly by mistake of the user to the
total quantity and thus some cargo still remains unsold.

4. Modifications screen - Please change the font color of the items which are not available (gray), because with the existing background they are unreadable.
Also the purple color if the 3rd Tier mods is almost unreadable.
Alternatively, please provide another background (i.e. the planet colored differently) so that the above fonts are clearly visible.

5. When having the Station subordinates open (Map-Property owned, plus button) and one of the ships is highlighted, when clicking on the minus button to close station sub-menu details,
then the minus button does not work. The cursor must be moved to another location, outside of this sub-menu, in order for the list to close.
Same thing with Wings and subordinates. The minus button does not close the s-menu if one of the subordinate ships is selected, unless the selection is moved away from it.

6. In the ship General Information please include the Faction name which is producing this particular ship in order to be able to select the proper shipyard in case
another similar ship is to be ordered later. Otherwise, if one does not remember the manufacturing Faction, he/she has to search other sources for this info. The same info should be
present in the Encyclopedia, where it is also missing. In case of 2 (or more) producing factions, like Alliance and Argon, please provide both names (ALI/ARG).

II. Mechanics

- Returning screens - Screen focus when returning back to the previous (calling) screen
1a. When in Map screen and going to a station's Plan Build and then returning to the Map, please always return to the previous position in map and not to position where the player is
1b. When clicking on the "assign Builder" button during Station Plan Build and the map is shown in order to locate a Builder, focus on the said station and NOT on the location where the player is
1c. When in Plan Build screen and selecting the Encyclopedia for one of the items in a category, when returning, go back to the same category the encyclopedia was called from
and not on the 1st (production modules)
1d. When selecting a ship from the Object List and then right-click on a Shipyard/Wharf/Equipment Dock to issue updates for it, after finishing with those updates the Object List is shown again,
but without any selection. Please keep this ship selected and visible in the Object List because some further instructions could be issued to that ship.

1e. When in Object List and choosing "Teleport to" to a station or ship, when the teleport is done, the biggest possibility for a next command is to click on the Transporter Room control or to walk.
So, please remove the Object List screen and show directly the room where the player was teleported to on the Station/Ship to save one unnecessary click.

IN GENERAL: When returning to a previous (calling) screen (or to the Map) show this screen AS IT WAS just before opening a next screen (Please note: Request "1e" is an exception to that rule)


2. Please Stop auto opening of Object List when entering in Map view --> just remember the last status when Map was used

- New list with all ships
3. Please provide a new list with all my ships, where all of their Loadout is shown, so that I can see with one glance which ships carry Deployables, Mines, Drones etc. and how much of each.

- Messages from crew members or mission issuing authorities
4a. Some crew messages (for example: Order completed) flash on screen and disappear very quickly, so that the user does not know from which ship the message came from, and so not being able to react.
Even if it is shown on the top line of the flashing screen, I was not able to read this info not even once after 400 hrs. in the game.
As it is, it does not serve the purpose of issuing the message (not to mention the frustration).
Please keep the messages open until the user acknowledges, or even better provide a new screen (called from the Map menu) which will contain all previous messages from
Captains or Managers, including the issuing Station/Ship, the real time and perhaps more relevant info about the situation.

4b. As above but especially for the mission to deliver ships. If one is in Map screen doing something else, the request-to-transfer message disappears very quickly and the whole
mission is lost (here dealing with 20+ mil credits)

- Map - Object List
5a. Double clicking on a ship name in sub-tabs of Object List - When at Ship information/Behaviour sub-menu to be able to double-click the ship name at the top and focus on it in the map
5b. Malfunction ? - One must double-click TWICE (or even three times) to show a ship on the map from Object List.

6. Station names (main line of station): When a station is being built, its name occupies only one line and it does not have the grey background, used when the station's name spans 2 lines, being thus
difficult to spot. Please provide the same grey background for one-line long station names as it is done for 2-line long ones.

- Logbook
7. Please provide for each message the ACTUAL system date and time perhaps besides the game's date & time (for which by the way I'm really curious to know who and how one
could be using this info), so that the player has a clear understanding of when each message was issued.

8. When issuing the termination message of a mission, please include the Faction name along with the Client's name as it is already being done for the mission assignment message.
This way the player can see which mission was completed in case he/she runs same missions but from different factions instead of trying to figure out from the client's name
(and finding the starting mission message) which faction's mission is completed.

- Plan Build
9. Malfunction ? - Drop-down menus of various items in Station Logical Overview most of the time don't close after opening. Clicking on the arrow does not work.

10. Please provide a new button at "Available Money for Construction" to instantly accept the required amount ("Estimated price to buy all Resources") instead of using the slider or
by entering the amount manually. It could be even better if this auto placed number is properly rounded up to safely ensure the requested amount and to be easily readable.

- Buying/Upgrading ships
11. On the Purchase/Upgrade ship screen, please show the Shipyard/Wharf/Equipment dock the player is using for the said order

- Ship's cockpit
12. When wanting to take the pilot's position, one must click twice on "use it", one for the copilot to get up and one to actually take the seat. Please do it with one click
only, where the copilot will get up and leave and then the player takes the seat in one go, because as it is, besides the unnecessary 2nd click, sometimes when the
2nd click is quick, the copilot has no time to go away and is trapped besides the seat, resulting in a flickering of his figure.

- New hotkeys
13. Please assign
a) a separate new hotkey for activating ship Scans (where also the ship's Scan mode will also automatically be engaged) and
b) another one for "firing" Deep Scans and NOT the "Fire Secondary Weapons" key (when in Long Range Scan (LRS) Mode)
- If one is in a long range scanning process going back and forth to the Map and then to flying, also alternating between Travel Mode and LRS Mode,
it can happen that by pressing the Fire key to scan, a missile is being fired instead because of not noticing that the LRS mode in not active
(i.e. not noticing the blue color when this mode is engaged). I have lost quite a lot of missiles due to this.



III. Potential Bugs
1. When many orders have been given (i.e. Fly to...) - above 20~25, and the Behaviour button is clicked, when the list appears, the 2 buttons at top (Information @ Behaviour) are lost.

2. When buying some not so common wares (turret components) the indicator about existing buying orders points to non-relevant stations (i.e. medical supplies or defense platforms) and furthermore
those non-existent buying offers remain there indefinitely while there are near by shipyards which have buying orders but are not shown. Perhaps something is wrong with proper updating of buying orders
for certain somehow rare wares ???

3. Instructed my pilot (flying my Nemesis) to dock on an Odysseus. While my pilot was traveling to that ship, this one docked for some repairs I had instructed it to do.
And suddenly my ship (while being in Unholy Retribution) was found thousands of miles away from the known universe, traveling into nowhere (to the north of the map (+z), completely outside the known sectors).
I teleported away from it (to protect myself in case of a fatal error) and finally it took the ship more than 1 hour to come back to the known universe.

4. Object List in Holy Vision, all stations included in the view. When clicking on the Defense Platforms (2 of them in this case) to open their sub-menu, both of the s-menus open, but when closing
one of them, the screen alternates between opening the other s-menu and closing the first and vise versa. The same happened also in other sectors with 2 Defense Platforms as well.

5. When in Plan Build screen, if a station module is being deconstructed (due to replacing it with another one) the constant refreshing/flickering/ticking of screen with updating of the red numbers
does not allow to enter numbers for the budget manually (the slider is ok).

6. When trying to revisit already opened Data Vaults and reopen them, not all panels can be opened and I have to save the game, exit and reenter in order to unlock the next panel.
This happens twice (save-exit-renter) for each Data Vault to be able to unlock all panels and open the hatches.

[florianlt]

First of all thanks for your praise and the well-thought-out feedback. I forwarded this list to our internal mailing list and will work myself on a majority of your points. Some questions though:

I. UI
- Messages from crew members or mission issuing authorities
4a. Some crew messages (for example: Order completed) flash on screen and disappear very quickly, so that the user does not know from which ship the message came from, and so not being able to react.
Even if it is shown on the top line of the flashing screen, I was not able to read this info not even once after 400 hrs. in the game.
As it is, it does not serve the purpose of issuing the message (not to mention the frustration).
Please keep the messages open until the user acknowledges, or even better provide a new screen (called from the Map menu) which will contain all previous messages from
Captains or Managers, including the issuing Station/Ship, the real time and perhaps more relevant info about the situation.

Is this new screen not the logbook we already have? Are messages missing from this?

- Logbook
7. Please provide for each message the ACTUAL system date and time perhaps besides the game's date & time (for which by the way I'm really curious to know who and how one
could be using this info), so that the player has a clear understanding of when each message was issued.

Would showing the system time not break immersion for you? It certainly does for me. My suggestion would be to show "3 minutes ago", "7 hours ago" for messages less than 24h old. Would this help?

2. When buying some not so common wares (turret components) the indicator about existing buying orders points to non-relevant stations (i.e. medical supplies or defense platforms) and furthermore
those non-existent buying offers remain there indefinitely while there are near by shipyards which have buying orders but are not shown. Perhaps something is wrong with proper updating of buying orders
for certain somehow rare wares ???

Please provide a savegame of this situation

4. Object List in Holy Vision, all stations included in the view. When clicking on the Defense Platforms (2 of them in this case) to open their sub-menu, both of the s-menus open, but when closing
one of them, the screen alternates between opening the other s-menu and closing the first and vise versa. The same happened also in other sectors with 2 Defense Platforms as well.

Please provide a savegame of this situation

Florian

[jm7111]

Thank you Florian for the response.
To be honest, I thought that the Dev team doesn't allocate time to handle game improvement suggestions, and sometimes rightly so, because in fact some of them might be quite extreme,
or simply because of lack of time. You have proven me wrong, and I appreciate that .

Please let me first correct something I wrote in my post above about naming (for other players, who might read this).
All naming cases (ship, satellite names etc. or Ship Loadout - Construction Plan naming in Plan Build, Blacklist naming and Save game naming) behave the same, i.e. no editing capabilities, except simply writing words.

To your points:
- 4a. Messages from crew members or mission issuing authorities

You are referring to the Logbook/Upkeep section where the result of the notification "flash" screen ("forced to flee...", etc.) is being in fact recorded.
That covers my request about recording crew messages in a new screen (after the fact).

But I was mainly talking about handling the "flash" screen (choosing one of the presented options) at the moment it appears.

I spend most of my time in the Map screen, which I consider the Main Strategy Screen for the game for the 3 out of the 4 game's aspects (namely Build, Trade and Think - but even also sometimes for Fight).

So, when such a notification message is issued, there is simply no time
a) to press M to return back to the piloting screen,
b) read the message,
c) comprehend for what ship the msg is about - in order to decide about escaping or attacking the offender, and
d) choose the appropriate option.
The screen has disappeared long before that....

I understand the background running scripts can't wait for me to do all the above steps a) - d) at my pace , but this situation is really a real problem (at least for me).
There is indeed the "Wait" option, but as stated, this is also unobtainable.

Especially disturbing is the case mentioned under II.4b, for the Assemble Fleet mission. I had never enough time to return to the piloting screen and issue the "Transfer fleet"
command in order to deliver the ships, thus losing the mission and being left with ships I didn't want at that time.

Missing messages - my opinion

1. Message not recorded: something like "the last action could not be completed"
When instructing a ship to lay laser towers (or satellites), if the number exceeds the stock of the ship, there is in fact a verbal message like "the last action could not be completed",
but no message in Logbook about the issuing ship and why.
Further suggestion about this:
This is simply the result of not showing the remaining laser towers (or satellites) in stock each time the Deploy at Position - Civilian/Military is chosen.
The behavior is correct, since the towers/satellites have not been actually deployed yet, but I suggest, if possible, to write each time the menu is opened, besides the total existing number,
how many have been instructed for deployment so far with a minus sign in green, i.e. "Laser tower MK1 (10) -3".
In this example case the user will know that he still has 7 items to deploy.

2. Message not recorded: "Need orders"
Sometimes, due to various reasons, a ship might stay without orders. A verbal notification message is issued though, as well as a "speaker" icon in both the Map and in Property Owned list symbols,
which stay there only for a little while (so, if I went to grab a coffee, etc. I couldn't hear it). Additionally, after that, the said ship does not have an symbol on the Property Owned,
so indirectly hinting for "no orders" situation.
Because this condition (i.e. no symbol) is also encountered when a trading ship is "in transition" from finishing a Trade to searching for new Trade offers, is is not immediately apparent that said ship has
no orders, compared to a ship "in transition". So, if I only take a short look at Property Owned list once in a while to see if everything is OK, I can't see the difference (in case of no symbol) and
I'm thinking that the ship is "in transition", which is the usual case.
I would suggest, if possible, that in this situation of "no orders", a message is also written in Logbook.

3. Additional case with multiple, but same messages in Logbook:
In the Save provided, in Logbook/Missions you will find 3 similar messages (same date/time), all recorded after a mission completion. Don't know how that happened.


- 7. Logbook - record Actual system date and time

I understand that the game needs to keep its own continuous time, especially after saving and resuming playing one (or more) day(s) later. That's why I am asking for the actual time,
and simply writing "7 hours ago" - from which time ?? (when resuming playing after a week's break), won't help.

For me personally, writing the actual time does not break the immersion (I never considered this time, even since AP), but for players who do mind, you could make it an option
in the game's settings, like "provide actual System times in Logbook".

- 2. Missing buying orders while the info screen shows some existing ones

Unfortunately, I didn't keep a save of this case, but I will do so next time I'll encounter it.

One particular aspect of this case is when one item is not widely available for buying and the user must zoom out in order to show all sectors, so that the info screen can find some buying offers.
If one is present, but the station, which is providing it is "behind" or very near a shipyard or wharf (the large icons which are shown when zooming out) the pointing line points to this shipyard/wharf.
So if I choose this station for trading without zooming in, I won't find the trade offer. This is confusing at the beginning, when not enough playing experience exists.

- 4. Object List in Holy Vision - Defense Platforms entries alternating

After careful inspection, I was wrong in writing that sub-menus are alternating in opening/closing.

What is happening I suppose is that the sorting algorithm keeps constantly changing the positions of the Def Platform entries in the list (in the save provided are now 3 of them).
This happens most probably because they are all named simply "HOP Defense Platform (XXX-NNN)" and not as other similar entries I - II - III (the code in parenthesis seems not to be taken into consideration by the sorting, neither by Name, not by Size or Hull).

Therefore, initially I thought that one sub-menu is opening and the other was closing because I didn't pay attention to the codes (who does ?? ), while they were only just changing positions in the list.

Please check the sorting algorithm in cases of similarly named stations. In this case the names where given by the game.

Available Save

[florianlt]

Quick update on some of your points. Some of these have happened / could still happen for 2.60, most of them will be available later. The ones I'm not mentioning are not forgotten.

1. Please allow for proper editing of ship names (editing the existing name, pasting etc) at the General Information tab. As it is, one must enter the full name anew each time the renaming of a ship is required. The same for Probes and Satellite naming.
Furthermore, if by mistake an error in a letter is done, one must backspace (erase all) to that error and rewrite the rest.
The requested functionality is already partially present in Blacklist naming at Global Orders tab

Done

4. Modifications screen - Please change the font color of the items which are not available (gray), because with the existing background they are unreadable.
Also the purple color if the 3rd Tier mods is almost unreadable.
Alternatively, please provide another background (i.e. the planet colored differently) so that the above fonts are clearly visible.

We changed the background

5. When having the Station subordinates open (Map-Property owned, plus button) and one of the ships is highlighted, when clicking on the minus button to close station sub-menu details, then the minus button does not work. The cursor must be moved to another location, outside of this sub-menu, in order for the list to close.
Same thing with Wings and subordinates. The minus button does not close the s-menu if one of the subordinate ships is selected, unless the selection is moved away from it.

Fixed

6. In the ship General Information please include the Faction name which is producing this particular ship in order to be able to select the proper shipyard in case another similar ship is to be ordered later. Otherwise, if one does not remember the manufacturing Faction, he/she has to search other sources for this info. The same info should be present in the Encyclopedia, where it is also missing. In case of 2 (or more) producing factions, like Alliance and Argon, please provide both names (ALI/ARG).

Done

1a. When in Map screen and going to a station's Plan Build and then returning to the Map, please always return to the previous position in map and not to position where the player is
1b. When clicking on the "assign Builder" button during Station Plan Build and the map is shown in order to locate a Builder, focus on the said station and NOT on the location where the player is
1c. When in Plan Build screen and selecting the Encyclopedia for one of the items in a category, when returning, go back to the same category the encyclopedia was called from and not on the 1st (production modules)

All done

5a. Double clicking on a ship name in sub-tabs of Object List - When at Ship information/Behaviour sub-menu to be able to double-click the ship name at the top and focus on it in the map

Done

7. Please provide for each message the ACTUAL system date and time perhaps besides the game's date & time (for which by the way I'm really curious to know who and how one could be using this info), so that the player has a clear understanding of when each message was issued.

We added the time that has passed since the logbook entry was written

10. Please provide a new button at "Available Money for Construction" to instantly accept the required amount ("Estimated price to buy all Resources") instead of using the slider or by entering the amount manually. It could be even better if this auto placed number is properly rounded up to safely ensure the requested amount and to be easily readable.

Done

11. On the Purchase/Upgrade ship screen, please show the Shipyard/Wharf/Equipment dock the player is using for the said order

Done

1. When many orders have been given (i.e. Fly to...) - above 20~25, and the Behaviour button is clicked, when the list appears, the 2 buttons at top (Information @ Behaviour) are lost.

Fixed

5. When in Plan Build screen, if a station module is being deconstructed (due to replacing it with another one) the constant refreshing/flickering/ticking of screen with updating of the red numbers does not allow to enter numbers for the budget manually (the slider is ok).

Fixed

[Skeeter]

If already answered or asked then ignore.

But i wouldnt mind a colour picker for the cursor so that i dont have to use a mod because blue on dark colours like black arnt very good for me ive never been great with a mid to dark blue against a darkish background especially text. So a colour picker option of a few prime colours would be nice.

[tomchk]

This thread is a fantastic example of how responsive these developers are to polite requests and suggestions. I may have to try a detailed list like this depending on how 3.0 is. Egosoft developers, you are doing great work.

I believe a number of the changes they’ve confirmed will be in 3.0, rather than 2.6.

[jm7111]

Quick update on some of your points. Some of these have happened / could still happen for 2.60, most of them will be available later. The ones I'm not mentioning are not forgotten.

Thank you very much Florian for the effort and the reply. I believe that the above points will improve upon some of the game handling problems and make it more user-friendly.

I have prepared a new list of requests/suggested improvements after dealing with game for over 900hrs to be posted shortly and after 2.60 is issued.
Please continue improving the game as you do, as this will be obviously beneficial to us all